Mundri East commissioner says the county is yet to trace two staff of a national non-governmental organization who were abducted early this month in the area.

The two individuals were kidnapped while training chiefs and youths on peace and governance in Minga Payam.

The commissioner could not mention the names of the abductees.

However, in a press release by the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, the abductees have been identified as Emmanuel Ginaba and Yasir Mamur.

They work for Active Youth Agency, a national non-governmental organization in the county.

The count official, Margaret Fozia said they are aware of the incident, but no one has claimed responsibility.

“I am aware, but I don’t know who abducted them. Somebody who is in the bush, I wouldn’t know. If they were abducted by the SSPD or IO I would be able to respond because these are the people I know and they are around.”

However, Fozia went on to say, “The county is doing everything possible to find their ware-bouts and bring them home.”

In a separate statement, the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, CEPO, condemned the act and demanded immediate release of the staff.

In its statement seen by Eye Radio, CEPO, called on the abductors to let go off the staff without any pre-conditions and ensure that they are free from any form of harm.

It also added that abducting humanitarian workers for whatever objective is unacceptable, and a crime that should stop.

The mother of two siblings who were allegedly killed by SSPDF soldiers in Kiri Boma of Kajo-Keji County nearly two months ago has died after taking a toxicant.

48-year-old Susan Basa Wani reportedly consumed Ant Trax, a pesticide used for killing ant-hill ants on Sunday evening.

“I called my mum but she was not picking my calls. So, I decided to call a neighbor to go and check on my mother. After a while, the neighbor called me back and told me that she found my mother laying on the ground”, Jessica Kabang, a daughter to the late narrated to Eye Radio.

“”So, I rushed and found that the neighbors have already put her on the bed lying unconsciously. When we went to her room, we got a bottle of Ant-Trax on the ground,” Kabang said.

The woman was then rushed to a nearby health center at Kworojik where she died the following morning while receiving first aid.

In May, Susan sons Yamba Lominsuk, 18, Justin Lisok Lominsuk, 16, and Yiga Wani, 8 were killed by soldiers.

This was after the deceased cousins volunteered to show some soldiers the body of their colleague who was murdered in the Kiri Boma.

Recently, Central Equatoria State received the findings of an investigation into the incident by the state parliament , but the document has not been made public.

The Central Equatoria governor has called on the Bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Yei to engage the holdout groups to denounce violence in the area.

Governor Emmanuel Adil and Bishop Alex Lodiong met in the national capital, Juba at the weekend.

The two leaders discussed means to restore peace and stability in the area as well as improve service delivery to the civilian population.

According to the governor’s press secretary, Derick Derickson,”Emmanuel Adil emphasized on the need for the church leaders particularly the Bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Yei to use his influence to call on the hold out group to denounce violence and join the wagon of peace.”

For his part, Bishop Alex Lodiong said, insecurity remains the biggest challenge in the Yei River and the situation requires a lot of peace and development efforts.

The latter is what the bishop believes will attract those who took refuge to neighboring Uganda and DR Congo to return home and rebuild their lives.

“So many people are not there, 75 percent of the people are not there, they are in Uganda, others are in DR. Congo and others displaced within the bushes”,

The religious leader went on to say ” insecurity is still strong and many of our people still feel insecure whether in the towns or in the bushes.”

However, the clergy said one of his missions in the near future is to visit the grassroots as well as the disgruntled armed group.

Talks between the government and the National Salvation Front stalled since June last year after President Kiir suspended the Rome peace process.

This followed the killing of two catholic nuns along the Juba-Nimule highway- an incident the government and NAS traded counter accusations

An official has expressed worries over the safety of hundreds of Bentiu residents who unilaterally started clearing weeds on the Naam River.

On Thursday, the civilians got into the river with machetes, sickles, hoes and shovels to remove the quagmire of swamps, believed to have obstructed the water flow into the Nile River.

A video footages and photos seen by Eye Radio showed a crowd of civilians inside and along the bank of the river, manually cutting water hyacinths with their hand tools.

He warned the defiant locals against aquatic animals including snakes.

“Hundreds have humped into the river in order to remove those weeds and I think that is a safety concern because we have snakes, we have other aquatic animals and we don’t want to lose lives when people would like to serve lives,” said Joseph Africano, the Undersecretary at the national Ministry of Environment.

The move came a few days after President Salva Kiir suspended dredging related activities on the Naam and Bahr el Ghazal basin, pending environmental impact assessment.

However, in the national capital Juba, environmental experts and academia continue to voice fears of possible danger of the project.

They called on the government to first carry out an environmental and social impact assessment before dredging the Nile tributaries.